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David Kneeshaw tells IA about RL360’s ‘new lease of life’ post-buyout

David Kneeshaw has been discussing RL360’s progress since November’s management-led buyout with key industry publication International Adviser.

The Q&A-style piece covers the exciting time in the run up to the buyout, the huge task of rebranding post-sale and RL360’s exciting plans for the future.

“We want to grow and expand, we want to be bigger and better, of course,” David tells IA’s Helen Burggraf. “But that’s not a different direction for us. We always were looking to expand, to be bigger and better.”

He adds: “One thing you have to remember is that even when we were owned by Royal London, we always had our own strategy, and our own infrastructure, and our own approach to doing business – apart from the group.

“That was always one of the appeals of this business, that it was a holistic unit, with its own infrastructure. Therefore it could be bought as a turn-key operation.

“There is one big difference though. That’s the fact that, now that we are an independent company, the total focus of our shareholders is on us. Whereas, the reality is that however good an owner Royal London was – and it was a good owner – it had plenty of other things to focus on besides us.

“So that means the pace at which we can make strategic improvements, for example, is quicker.

“Otherwise, apart from some branding – and some hard work has gone into that, including reminding everyone to call ourselves RL360, and not Royal London 360 – and some IT separation, basically the business has just carried on as normal.

“And I think that’s quite crucial: What people were buying into is what we’ve been doing for the last five or six years.”